Sierra Leone-born US ballerina Michaela Mabinty DePrince dies aged 29

Ballet dancer Michaela Mabinty DePrince, who came to the US from an orphanage in war-torn Sierra Leone and performed on some of the world's biggest stages, has died, her family said in a statement. She was 29.

“Michaela touched so many lives across the world, including ours. She was an unforgettable inspiration to everyone who knew her or heard her story,” her family said in a statement posted Friday on DePrince's social media accounts.

“From her early life in war-torn Africa, to stages and screens across the world, she achieved her dreams and so much more.”

A cause of death was not provided.

A story of hardship and perseverance

DePrince was adopted by a US couple, and by age 17, she had been featured in a documentary film and had performed on the TV show “Dancing With the Stars”.

Her story begins in Sierra Leone, where she lost both her parents at a young age and was placed in an orphanage. In her memoir, “Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina,” she shared her journey from the orphanage to the stage. She also wrote a children's book, Ballerina Dreams.

DePrince suffered from a skin pigmentation disorder that had her labelled “the devil’s child” at the orphanage.

“I lost both my parents, so I was there (the orphanage) for about a year and I wasn’t treated very well because I had vitiligo,” DePrince told the AP in a 2012 interview. “We were ranked as numbers and number 27 was the least favourite and that was my number, so I got the least amount of food, the least amount of clothes and whatnot.”

She added that she remembered seeing a photo of an American ballet dancer on a magazine page that had blown against the gate of the orphanage during Sierra Leone's civil war.

“All I remember is she looked really, really happy,” DePrince told the AP, adding that she wished “to become this exact person.”

She said she saw hope in that photo, “and I ripped the page out and I stuck it in my underwear because I didn’t have any place to put it,” she said.

Her sister Mia Mabinty DePrince recalled in the statement that they slept on a shared mat in the orphanage and used to make up their own musical theatre plays and ballets.

“When we got adopted, our parents quickly poured into our dreams and arose the beautiful, gracefully strong ballerina that so many of you knew her as today. She was an inspiration,” Mia DePrince wrote.

“Whether she was leaping across the stage or getting on a plane and flying to third-world countries to provide orphans and children with dance classes, she was determined to conquer all her dreams in the arts and dance.”

After graduating from high school and the American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, she became a principal dancer at the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She then went to the Netherlands, where she danced with the Dutch National Ballet. She later returned to the US and joined the Boston Ballet in 2021.

An ambassador for War Child

Her passion helped inspire young Black dancers to pursue their dreams, her family said.

“We will miss her and her gorgeous smile forever and we know you will, too,” their statement said.

She is survived by five sisters and two brothers. The family requested that in lieu of flowers, donations could be made to War Child, an organisation that DePrince was involved with as a War Child Ambassador.

“This work meant the world to her, and your donations will directly help other children who grew up in an environment of armed conflict,” DePrince's family said in a statement.